


Testing and Experimenting

by Akira_of_the_Twilight



Series: Strangers in Space [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Eventual StarkSpangledWinterHawk, Extremis, M/M, OT3 to OT4, OTP to OT3, Polyamory, Pre-Slash, Pseudoscience, Series, Tony-centric, established stucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 09:52:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7263112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akira_of_the_Twilight/pseuds/Akira_of_the_Twilight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people would be worry about having just been abducted by two criminals.</p>
<p>Tony is more concerned about convincing his abductors to let him stay with them and experimenting with Extremis. </p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Tony was trying to not be overwhelmed by all of the data streaming across his vision.</p>
<p>It was an interesting process. It was like Tony’s tablet was inside his head and all he had to do was tweak a few things here and there as he went from nanite by nanite to ensure each one preformed exactly as he wanted it to.</p>
<p>Someone patted the back of the couch next to Tony’s shoulder.</p>
<p>Tony jumped, all formulas and data readouts vanishing from his vision.</p>
<p>Steve's brow was pinched with concern. “You okay, Tony? You zoned out again.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Testing and Experimenting

Tony huddled on the “living room” couch of Steve and Bucky’s spaceship. The vessel was small, but spacious enough that two or three people could live in it comfortably. It was about as roomy as a single story house. The living room though was a glorified broom closet with a couch and coffee table.

A coffee table that was slightly off balance. When, Tony told himself, he gets his hands on some tools he’s going to have to level it.

For now though, Tony was trying to not be overwhelmed by all of the data streaming across his vision.

Howard really had reprogrammed the nanites in his system to take in information in stages. The most basic and first stage was essentially a scan of any technology within a certain radius. The second stage was like listening in on a conversation. He could pick up what each device was doing before delving deeply into coding and algorithms.

Stage two alone gave him headaches, and he was currently trying to reprogram the nanites in his system to work on a more manual level with protective protocols set in place should something happen to him. It was an interesting process. It was like Tony’s tablet was inside his head and all he had to do was tweak a few things here and there as he went from nanite by nanite to ensure each one preformed exactly as he wanted it to.

Someone patted the back of the couch next to Tony’s shoulder.

Tony jumped, all formulas and data readouts vanishing from his vision.

Steve held out a tube of some sort of pasty substance. His brow was pinched with concern. “You okay, Tony? You zoned out again.”

Tony hugged his knees to his chest and waved off Steve’s concern. “Just daydreaming.”

The corner of Steve’s mouth quirked up. “Must be a nice daydream, since you forgot to eat again.” Steve set the tube of food on the table and slid it toward Tony. “Bucky said you like this one.”

Tony glanced at the tube, taking in the words across the plain packing. Yeah, he had liked the flavor Steve had picked out. It actually surprised Tony a little that he did like the mush at all. While it was possible to have a sandwich or ramen in space—or any food that wasn’t a paste—it was still a challenge to store such food for long periods of time, so dried out food or paste was still very common on spaceships. Even after all these years of people living off the stuff as they traveled from one planet to the next, no one had quite mastered how to make paste delicious. Except one company apparently.

Tony reached for the tube and uncapped it. He brought the tube to his mouth and squirted a glob onto his tongue, inwardly smiling as he remembered doing something similar when he was kid with a packet of applesauce.

Steve sat on the arm of the couch and watched Tony.

Tony raised an eyebrow as he swallowed the glob of paste and sucked the rest out of the tube.

“Bucky and I will take you anywhere you want to go,” Steve stated.

Internally Tony rolled his eyes. Bucky and Steve had been saying that since the day they had rescued him. Everyday they reminded him, and everyday he shrugged it off or just nodded.

He understood why the two wanted to get rid of him; he was a liability. They were thieves, and pros if they had been able to break into Howard’s mansion. They didn’t need someone like Tony around to mess things up.

Tony had nowhere to go though.

Even if Tony felt comfortable looking into his distant relatives and asking for one of them to let him live with them, Howard would look for him there right away. As for friends, Tony didn’t have any.

Tony appreciated the offer, but at the same time it just reminded him how alone he really was.

“If you’re worried that we might extort any family or friends of yours, Bucky and I would never do that.”

Tony huffed, pulling the tube out of his mouth. “Obviously. Howard is the family member with the money. You’d have contacted him by now if that was your goal.” And Tony knew they hadn’t. He’d looked into the ship’s computer to see if Steve or Bucky had sent a message to Earth, which they hadn’t since before they’d abducted Tony. They also hadn’t used their communicators to call Howard.

Steve frowned in confusion. “You trust us.”

Tony noticed that it wasn’t a question, but a statement. “You two did save my life.”

“But you won’t tell us where you want to go.”

“Maybe because there is nowhere for me to go.”

The one thing Tony had come to like about Steve was that it was always easy to see when the man was strategizing. There was just this special way he clenched his jaw and focused his gaze on something slightly below his line of vision that gave away his calculating mind.

“I see.” Steve rose from the couch’s arm. “I need to discuss something with Bucky.” Steve pivoted and marched for the door.

“By the way,” Tony spoke casually, but really he was just stalling. “I noticed we should be landing on another planet in the next day, and it looks like your engine could use a tune up. How about I take care of that for you?”

Steve was visibly thrown. “How did you—”

“I’m naturally curious so I have habit of figuring these kind of things out.”

Steve eyed Tony with suspicion.

Tony just smiled as he waited for Steve’s doubt to pass.

Some of the tension left Steve’s shoulders. “Sure, if you really think the engine needs it. We haven’t taken the ship in for service in a while.”

“Great. It’s a deal.” Tony went back to enjoying his snack.

Steve eyed Tony as he slowly left the room.

* * *

Cylira—the planet also nicknamed Swan Song due to its location between the Cygnus and Lyra constellations—was Earth-like in appearance. No red skies or noxious gases in the air. Well, if you didn’t count the fumes of the many aircrafts flying around.

Skyscrapers covered in greenery stretched toward the blue sky. On Cylira it was quite common for vegetation to exist alongside technology. The people of Cylira had gone out of their way to nurture their environment as well as their tech, which was why even at the docking station for spacecrafts there were plants everywhere.

Tony frowned as he stood on the literal docks—this particular hangar bay was located alongside an actual bay of water. He crouched down and plucked a small flower out from between the dock’s wooden boards.

“Steve should have everything settled soon.” Bucky strolled up from behind Tony and stood next to him. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets. “So you’re fixing the engine?”

Tony nodded. He was too preoccupied with adjusting his nanites to pick up certain bits of information without overwhelming himself to speak to Bucky. Also, he was keeping an eye on the ship as well as Steve as the man bartered for lower rent. Tony in addition to that trying to use the local servers to look for places that would sell him parts cheap. He didn’t have any money, but with a creative thinking he could—

Bucky thrust a brand new communicator at Tony.

Tony blinked and shut off the nanites incoming information. “For me?” He took the communicator and pressed down on the on button.

“It’s a burner, but it will give you access to an account Steve and I set up, so you can buy any parts or tools you might need to tune up the engine.”

Tony’s eyes almost burst from his skulls at the number of credits in the account. He may have been raised by a billionaire and therefore have had a skewed view of the value of a credit, but even he could tell that Steve and Bucky had given him enough credits to buy a new spaceship and then some.

“I think you’re overestimating how much it is going to cost for me to fix up the engine.”

Bucky shrugged. “Better to have a cushion than have you run into trouble because we didn’t give you enough.”

Tony shook his head, but didn’t argue further. If Steve and Bucky wanted to trust essentially a stranger with so much money then Tony was not going to question it (out loud).

“All settled,” Steve hollered as he joined them on the dock. He took a moment to breath in the fresh and salty air then clamped his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “Time for reconnaissance.” He turned his attention to Tony. “Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

“I would hope so.” Tony pocketed the communicator. “Try to stay out until nightfall if you can help it. Once I get what I need, I’m going to be causing such a ruckus, you won’t be able to sleep or think while onboard, so you might as well enjoy Swan Song.”

Steve wrinkled his nose at the planet’s nickname. “Bucky and I also have communicators too. We’ve programmed our numbers into yours in case you need to call us.”

Tony was once again surprised. They were really trusting him not to run to the local police and report them for abducting them. Granted, he’d told Steve he had nowhere else to go, but he hadn’t exactly been singing Bucky and Steve adulations for saving him either. He’d hoped what he did today would get across his gratitude though, and maybe make them more open-minded to letting him stay with them for a few months.

Tony shooed them away. “Go. If you finish recon early you two can go on a date.”

Steve and Bucky startled. “When did you—“ they both began to say, but cut themselves off when they heard the other speaking.

Tony scoffed. “You really think in a ship that small you can hide relationship on it?”

Bucky and Steve shared looks. At first their gazes were filled with bafflement and worry. Then slowly their mouths curved upward and mischief twinkled in their eyes.

They stared at each other for a few more seconds, silently flirting with each other it seemed.

Tony had to suppress his inner child who was demanding that he make gagging sounds at all the eye-sex the two were having. Really, how the two had yet to be arrested for public indecency was a shock to Tony.

“We hope we didn’t make you uncomfortable,” Steve said, even when from the corner of his eye his was still having eye sex with Bucky.

“The only thing that is making me uncomfortable right now is how obvious it is that you two are picturing each other naked. Please, for my sake, go.” Tony pointed toward the city.

Bucky chuckled and pulled Steve in the indicated direction. “You heard the man, Stevie. Let’s not destroy what remains of his innocence.”

Tony snorted at that. Him innocent? The very notion was preposterous. Even if during his down times as a kid he hadn’t taken advantage of his higher social standing to fool around, after everything he’d just been through, Tony could never be “innocent” again.

Tony took a deep breath and commanded his nanites to receive information from outside sources again. He narrowed down his focus on the ship, double-checking that its computers were working at full capacity. He’s already gone through the systems before landing on Cylira, but he’d always been thorough when it came to these sorts of things.

Once Tony confirmed the computers were in working order, he headed back to the ship and went to the engine room. The room was hot and compact. Within a minute he was sweating as he squeezed himself between the wall and engine. The protective suit he had to wear was heavy and made him twice as hot and his movements clumsy. He targeted the areas of the engine that he’d picked up through the computer system as having trouble. Nothing was broken, but many parts were painfully worn, and there was gunk between gears and such.

Tony used Extremis to help him keep track of measurements and parts as he took apart the engine. Perhaps it would be better just to get a whole new one and upgrade it instead of trying to upgrade this grandpa of an engine? He knew of few newer models that would be compatible with the ship. They’d be more fuel-efficient and they’d also improve the ship’s speed too.

Tony had several ideas for what he could do, and they fought for attention in his head. He wished he had his tablet or a pencil and pad so he could put down some of the information so it wasn’t just floating around in his head. He needed to see it—to clearly visualize what he was thinking. He needed—

Tony jolted as three blue projections of three different engine types popped into existence in front of his head.

Tony blinked taking in the projections floating around his head. He recognized them as the blueprints he’d been formulating within his cranium.

For a moment all Tony could do was stare as it became clear to him that with the help of Extremis he had somehow managed to project his “thoughts” outside of his head.

Tony shuddered and focused on dissipating the projections. Once that was done, he threw himself back into his project for the day. He wasn’t in the mood to contemplate the changes to his body or what this could mean for him in the future. Those thoughts would be for another day.

Once Tony settled on a plan of attack, he sealed up the engine room and went into the world of Cylira. Tony browsed the closest shops for ship parts and tried to see if he could haggle some of the prices down. When he couldn’t, he headed further into the city and started looking into smaller businesses that had advertised lower prices. With a smile and some charm he was able to get the part he wanted, especially when he offered to pay a hefty amount of credits in order to get the larger parts delivered before the end of the day.

By the time Tony was done with the first half of his project, he was tried and hungry. He trudged through the city, wishing he had a hover car or even a hover board to shorten the trip.

Something red flashed in the corner of Tony’s eye.

Tony paused for a moment, his brain dragging itself out from its mental wanderings.

For the last few days Tony had been toying with the nanites, and one of the things he’d tried to set up was to have them always searching for anything featuring his name. He’d adjusted the algorithm so that the nanites wouldn’t constantly pull up old articles about him and his family. Whatever Extremis had found must have just hit the local servers.

Tony accessed the information and tensed.

It was a police report saying that he’d been abducted from Earth.

Tony skimmed through the report and saw that Howard and filed it just over a week ago.

Tony cursed and ducked his head down.

He ran into the first clothing shop he could find and bought a jacket with a hood and a pair of tinted glasses. He considered finding a shop that sold a breathing apparatus that would cover the lower half of his face, but he shoved down the idea. It would take more time to go to such a shop and buy the apparatus than it would to just head straight for the spaceship.

Once Tony had his disguise, he hurried back to the ship.

He felt his heart pound in his chest and his breaths come out shallow and quick. He wasn’t having a panic attack, but he was freaking out. He tried to comfort himself with statistics that told him the odds of someone recognizing him right away were low for many reasons. One of which reasons was that while Howard may have reported Tony missing days ago, the report had only showed up on the local police servers recently, so no one was going to have his face memorized yet.

He was just worried about facial recognition systems. He wasn’t as familiar with Cylira’s laws, so he didn’t know if the police would automatically have their computers scanning for his face. That was why in addition to his disguise, Tony did his best to find every camera on his path and loop it’s footage as he passed by.

His head was pounding by the time he’d reached the ship. Carts of parts had already arrived, and Tony groaned as he carried the carts up the ship’s ramp and put them just inside the ship. Once everything was inside, he went to the living room and collapsed face first on the couch.

Tony shut off all of the receiving channels to his nanites except for the ones linked to him and his emergency alert system.

His stomach growled.

Tony groaned and pillowed his head in his arms.

He just needed twenty minutes of sleep. Sleep first, then he could eat.

Tony’s world swirled and he closed his eyes.

He fell into the dark abyss of his dreams and was thrilled not to be plagued by nightmares of his time strapped to Howard’s lab table.

When he woke it was to whispers and someone crouched in front of him.

Tony grumbled to himself as he blinked his eyes open.

Blue eyes stared into his, and for a moment Tony was back on Howard’s table and looking into the eyes of his soon-to-be rescuer.

“You didn’t run away,” Bucky said, his metal hand resting on Tony’s shoulder.

Tony’s brow pinched. “Was I supposed to?” He felt someone settle onto the arm of the couch, next to his feet.

“No, but we were expecting you to,” Steve answered.

Tony twisted so he could see Steve.

Steve had crossed his arms over his chest and was studying Tony. “You’re looking a little pale and you’re covered in sweat. Do you need medicine?”

Tony shook his head and burrowed his cheek against the couch cushion. Even after sleeping he still felt as weak as a newborn. “Just overtaxed my system. Need more rest. Probably some food too.” He was too weak to get it himself.

“Is that why you didn’t run away?” Bucky asked.

Tony squinted at Bucky, trying to get across his annoyance. “I was never trying to run away. Why do you two keep talking about that?”

Bucky and Steve were silent. Bucky looked to Steve. Once again they had a silent conversation—this one at least less heated. Tony appreciated the lack of seduction in their gazes. While he could appreciate romance and sex as much as the next person, his stomach really couldn’t handle it right now.

Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “You said you had no place to go, but we couldn’t be one hundred-percent sure that was true.”

“We did technically abduct you after all,” Bucky pointed out.

“Or if it was true,” Steve continued, “we weren’t certain if you were only staying with us because you didn’t have the funds you would need in order to survive on your own.”

“So we realized when you offered to tune up the engine that we could give you the money needed to buy your way onto a ship as well as give you the money needed to pay for food and rent for a few months.” Bucky shrugged. “We really didn’t expect to return to our ship and have to wage our way through crates of engine parts.”

“Not just parts, but a whole new engine.” Steve shook his head. “You really didn’t have to go that far. A tune up would have been nice enough.”

Tony scowled. “I am not living on a ship with a fossil of an engine if I can help it.” Tony used his anger to help push himself up. His arms quaked under his weight, and before he could get fully up, Bucky was lowering him back down to the couch.

“You look like crap.” Bucky brushed his hand over Tony’s back. “Just stay down and let Steve and me take care of you for a bit.”

Tony shook his head. “I need to work on replacing the engine and its thrusters. It’s going to take the rest of the day, and you two probably don’t want to stay in one place too long.” Tony certainly didn’t, not after finding out that he’d been reported abducted.

“You let Bucky and me worry about how long we want to stay here. Besides, we’d planned for at least a few days even before you decided to replace the engine.”

Tony inwardly debated telling them that people would be looking for him, but as long as he hid on the ship, he should be safe for the time being.

He surrendered to his exhaustion and let his body go limp. “Okay.”

Bucky sighed, and swept a curl away from Tony’s face. “Told you we’d take care of you. So are you craving anything in particular to eat?”

Tony shook his head. “I think I can only handle mush.”

Bucky nodded as Steve stood up and exited the living room.

Bucky stood too. He carefully lifted Tony up so he could slide himself under Tony. “Sorry to invade the your personal space, but you look like you’re going to need some help getting food down you.” He manhandled Tony, so Tony was seated up right with his back pressed against Bucky’s chest.

Bucky touched his flesh hand to Tony’s forehead. “You’re burning up. Are you sure you don’t want medicine?”

Tony shook his head. “It will fix itself.”

Bucky frowned but didn’t comment. He kept running one hand up and down Tony’s arm in what Tony suspected was meant to be a soothing gesture.

A few minutes later, Steve was back with three tubes of food as well as a bottle of water.

He set the items on the coffee table. He hoisted Tony’s legs up and seated himself on the couch, then lowered Tony’s legs onto his lap. He kept one hand on Tony’s legs as he reached across Tony to pick one tube of food off the table. He uncapped it the tube, gave it a little squeeze to make sure the food would come out, and then handed it to Tony.

Tony sucked on the tube like a baby with a bottle.

He couldn’t afford to be this weak in the future, which meant if his body didn’t adapt to his use of Extremis, then he’d have to cut back on Extremis. He didn’t know how he felt about that. Extremis was amazing and useful. He’d hate to be unable to test its full capabilities just because his body wasn’t up to the task.

“Feeling better?” Bucky asked.

Tony nodded, and forced a smirk onto his face. “I’m spread out on top of two gorgeous men. How can I not feel better?”

Steve patted Tony on the leg. “Say that when you don’t look like a ghost.”

Tony might have imagined it, but he swore Steve had winked at him.

“Yes, please,” Bucky hugged him a little tighter.

Tony’s brain raced, and for once Tony decided to ignore his speeding thoughts and just relax and enjoy the moment. He was too tired for anything more.


End file.
